Fleetwood Mac's eleventh studio album Rumours was released in 1978. It was recorded during a tumultuous time in the band's history. Both of the relationships between Buckingham and Nicks and Christine McVie and John McVie fell apart during the recording and several songs on the album allude to these internal struggles. Continuing the pop-rock of their previous album, Rumours was an international best-seller, selling 10 million copies in its first month. It was also a critical success at the time of its release and is generally considered the band's best album. It was ranked seventh on Rolling Stones' most recent publication of their 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
For their previous album, I outlined a few things all the band's singers could improve upon when they're alone at the mike. Instead of addressing these, they just harmonize a lot, which might have been the better route--I don't think Buckingham or McVie could ever become stellar vocalists in my eyes. Which is not to say they aren't occasionally brilliant. Buckingham continues to be a gratifying guitarist with an impressive range and both Buckingham's "Never Going Back" and McVie's "You Make Loving Fun" are nearly excellent as the album's best song: "The Chain." Despite a few songs I'm not crazy about (one of which is "Dreams" interestingly), it is indeed the band's best project. A-
